Source for osage slats and planed bamboo?

[kiltedcelt]

Well, I'm itching to get back into making some bows and I'd really like to try my hand at making a simple Howard Hill style longbow - ie. osage backed with bamboo. However, I have no osage lumber of my own and no bamboo. I've been combing my bookmarks to find anyone who has osage lumber and bamboo for sale but I'm only coming up with 3Rivers Archery. If I have to go with 3Rivers, then fine, but it seems a bit pricey to pay $49 for a single 1"x2"x72" piece of osage and another $35 for a piece of bamboo. I've got my own bench top belt sander so I can probably do some work on a rough piece of 'boo if it came down to it as far as getting some 'boo cheaper. The osage I'm at a loss. The lumber yards around here obviously don't carry it, even the exotic one that carries weird woods like Kentucky Coffee Tree and Hackberry. Does 3Rivers price sound okay for raw materials for making up a boo/osage longbow? Anyone know of someone, maybe a PA advertiser who might have these raw materials at a somewhat better price? Oh yeah, and I'm not interested in buying someone else's glued up bow blanks. I prefer to have the raw materials to put everything together the way I want to do it.

[gstoneberg]

The problem with osage lumber is that it's difficult to mill so most sawmills don't want to mess with it.  It also likes to check so you get a lot of wood that ends up not being bow worthy even after it's cut.  I had some milled a year ago and nearly every board is checked bad enough to ruin most of a 6" wide board.  That's why it seems expensive.  I have a spliced (from 2 different boards that had bad knots/checks that ruined half of a board stave) osage board bow blank and a bamboo backer for it that I might let go if you had something to trade for it.  Unfortunately, I didn't get the splices aligned flat on the table during glue-up so one end of the bow blank needs to have about a sixteenth planed (or sanded) off it to even it up with the other end.  The bamboo has not been prepared for the bow.

George

[warpath]

Kiltedcelt-  I have some osage and bamboo that will fit the bill. If you have something worth trading we can definately work something out. Message me for more info.

   G

[bhenders]

There's a bamboo supply place out in California that has bamboo slats at a reasonable price.  I can't remember the name of the place but it was a simple name like George or Frank or Bill's Bamboo Supply... something like that.